Hitting 1000 peloton rides was a big deal for me and a reason to celebrate. Today I wanna share with you lessons learned after doing 1000 rides, and if the peloton team sends you to get any gifts.
In general, the peloton does recognize your efforts and after doing 1000 rides it gives you a Millenium Club milestone badge to highlight your success. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give away free millennium club t-shirt or any other special gifts.
What happens when you hit 100 rides on Peloton?
In general, it is hard to do 1000 rides on the peloton because it requires spending between 300 to 750 hours on the bike, depending on the length of each class.
It can take between 16 to even 48 months to reach 1000 peloton rides, depending on how often you train and how long are the classes.
Taking shorter rides (up to 20 minutes) can speed up the process of getting your 1000 rides milestone.
However, I don’t think that milestones and badges are really important here.
Let me explain.
I don’t know anyone who bought their peloton bike because of the free t-shirt or a gift card they giveaway. They bought them because they wanted to improve things like health, performance, or body composition.
So the gifts and badges are really the icings on the cake. The real benefits come from loving the process.
What do you get for 1000 peloton rides?
You won’t get any special gifts or bonuses after completing 1000 rides. It does, however, reward you will a shiny new Millennium Club badge.
You can also expect dozens of hi-fives from other members, and even a shootout from the peloton instructor.
Below you can see the full list of things that happen to your body after doing 1000 rides on the peloton.
1. You lose weight
I’ve seen at least a dozen Instagram and Facebook stories of people who completed 1000 rides on the peloton, together with their before and after pictures.
I personally lost 30 lbs (with a not-so-perfect diet plan) and almost doubled my FTP score (more on that soon).
Doing 1000 rides on the peloton means you worked hard and generated between 400,000 to 500,000 kJ of total output. This is equivalent to burning 600,000 to 900,000 calories.
According to an online calorie calculator, you can lose between 30 to even 60 pounds of excess weight after 1000 rides on the peloton (depending on the intensity and your nutrition plan).
People who maintain a calorie deficit can lose more weight, compared to people who maintain a calorie surplus.
2. You get stronger
One thing that I’ve noticed after doing 1000 rides is my strength and muscle endurance went up.
In the beginning, I was unable to complete the full 60 minutes power zone endurance ride, without getting out of breath. Today, I can do two endurance classes, back to back, with much less effort.
Your power output and your FTP score get better after doing 1000 rides. This means that you can not only do more sessions per week, but you also can complete much longer distances than before.
This happens because of the training adaptations where the more often you train, the body gets used to the stimuli and gets stronger.
Training adaptations mean changes in your muscles where the body gets accustomed to specific exercises after repeated exposure to the continued activity.
Increasing the training volume (e.g. class duration) leads to better results.
On the other hand, the less you train (or you don’t train at all) the body also responds to the lack of stimuli and you get weaker.
3. You have better body awareness
According to The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, “regular exercise has positive effects on personal and psychological parameters. Exercise is a preferred method to increase self-efficacy, self-esteem, and body awareness”
Body awareness (also known as kinesthesia) means you become more connected and conscious of your body, how it moves and how it feels. It is the ability to recognize your body in space and how efficiently you can move.
In other words, good body awareness means you can recognize the change in your breathing pattern, or you can tell the difference between muscle or joint pain.
People who spend over 400 hours on the peloton bike and reach 1000+ rides develop not only a solid habit of exercise but also good body awareness.
4. You prioritize your health
Doing 1000 rides on the peloton means you become more skillful in managing your time, and you developed systems and structures that make it possible to always fit your workouts into your daily schedule.
(That’s what happened to me.)
After using the Peloton bike for over two years now I noticed that planning the workout becomes second nature to me.
Even when I travel, go on holidays or spend all day at work I will always find the time and prioritize my day around my training.
Here’s a photo of my 1000-ride badge!
Millennium club badge means you how to better prioritize your health, physical activity, and even better nutrition in your everyday lifestyle choices.
5. You eat less food
I think this had the most profound impact on my body composition. The more time I spend on my bike, the less hunger and cravings I felt.
This happens because exercise has a positive effect on appetite suppression and helps to lower hunger.
One study has shown that “individuals with higher levels of habitual physical activity may exhibit improved sensitivity of the appetite control system through better compensatory adjustments for the energy content and density of food”.
However, the intensity and your current body weight matter, too.
Another study on appetite suppression has shown that “HIIT is more likely to elicit appetite hormones responses in obese than in lean individuals”.
This means that people who have more excess weight get better appetite suppression from doing less intense low-impact rides, but with longer duration.
6. You fall in love with exercise
It’s not a secret that exercise makes you feel good. I always feel like a thousand bucks after I finish my peloton ride.
This happens because aerobic training releases endorphins and other feel-good hormones.
In fact, one study published in Sports Medicine Journal has shown that “exercise has been linked to several psychological and physiological changes, including mood state changes and ‘exercise-induced euphoria and altered pain perception”.
Doing 1000 rides on the peloton means you not only get used to training, but also don’t look at the exercise as an obligation, but as a necessity.
Plus, even a single dose of aerobic training (aka acute exercise) increases peripheral levels of monoamines including dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. This means you become hooked on exercise (in a good way).
I call this falling in love with the peloton bike.
7. You value the process, not the outcome
Think of the process as your daily ritual of exercise. The outcome is your ultimate goal. The ultimate goal doesn’t happen overnight. The same with peloton 1000 rides.
I think that falling in love with the process and not the outcome is the key to success. People who constantly think about their goals may find it discouraging to continue. On the other hand, people who love the process (aka peloton rides) have a much better chance of success.
Loving the process means you’ve developed a habit of exercise and you enjoy it.
Not only that.
I also find that peloton instructors are doing an amazing job because they keep their workouts fun and challenging.
Now, if we gonna going one step further, one study has shown that “forming an exercise habit requires fun, personal control, and repetitive behavior“.
Make sense?
How To Complete 1000 Ride On Peloton
Here I want to share with you a few tips that will help you get past the hard times and reach the peloton 1000 rides milestone.
1. Don’t compete with others
Remember that riding on a peloton is not a competition with others. This is your personal journey and as long as you are making process, you’re on the good path.
2. Start where you’re today
In the beginning, you may have time only for a handful of classes per week. However, as time pass by and you notice more results, you will start to prioritize your workouts even more.
3. Try different classes
A lot of the coaches offer many alternatives to cycling. Try classes and instructors that you have never trained with before.
4. Add strength training
Doing more squats and pushups will make your body stronger and more resilient. It will also make your rides easier.
5. Do something every day
This means when you have a day off, open the peloton app and do something light like stretching, meditation, or a fun dance cardio workout.
Conclusion
Getting a millennium club milestone badge for completing 1000 rides is a huge achievement (even without an extra t-shirt). This means you probably tried a lot of different rides and you find the one that you like the most.
This also means you made a huge change in your lifestyle, body composition, and health in general.
However, if you’re still on your journey, remember that loving the process is so much more important than getting a trophy.